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1. Essay: "I Was Offered an Intimate Look at Rent the Runway's Turbulent Year" by Yasmine Gagne (2022) 

Favorite Sentence: "Success will rely on marketing, and women needing to dress up once again." 

—Picked by Kendra Berry (Associate Editor of Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review, Class of 2022) 


2. Poetry: Proximity by Randall Mann (2013) 

Favorite Sentence: "Don't shut your eyes." 

—Picked by Kevin Maedomari (Associate Editor of Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review, Class of 2022) 


3. Fiction: The Circle by Dave Eggers (2019) 

Favorite Sentences: "Briefly dizzy, she looked downward, and in the immaculate glossy floor, she saw her own face reflected, looking worried. She shaped her mouth into a smile, feeling a presence behind her."

—Picked by Adam Bean (Associate Editor of Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review, Class of 2022) 
 
Michigan Sentences: Here is an article about Just Enough, the wine startup created by Kaitlyn Luo, who graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 2021. 
Syllabus Sentences: Here is a video I created for students who are trying to learn how to pitch ideas to investors.
*The content of the video appears in written form in Chapter 5 of Good with Words: Speaking and Presenting.
Book Recommendations:
Notes on Nuance: "Long On, Short On"

 
Note how the construction "long on _____, short on _____" can be used to create a pithy contrast.

"The magazine editors I met as a young reporter were like most of the young developers and young attorneys—long on enthusiasm, short on experience."

—Mimi Swartz, "No Promises" (1987) 


Note how the construction works just as well if you switch the syntax: start with "short on _____" and then close with "long on _____."

"We put up with this kind of thing from Prince for decades: every time he came out with a new spiritual paradigm he shifted the goalposts, changed the rap, gave out a new party line which was short on convincing detail but long on wishy-washy utopian shine."

—Ian Penman, "The Question of U" (2019)
Additional Resources
                                              
Online Courses

Good with Words: Speaking and Presenting
Good with Words: Writing and Editing
Books   

Good with Words: Speaking and Presenting
Good with Words: Writing and Editing  
Notes on Nuance                                                    
The Syntax of Sports: Class 1 
The Syntax of Sports: Class 2
The Syntax of Sports: Class 3 
The Syntax of Sports: Class 4
Startup Slang
Startup Jargon Words You Need to Know to Raise Money (Forbes, 2014)

 
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Copyright © Patrick Barry, All rights reserved.


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